24 



riSH AND GAME COMMISSION. 



Fig. 5. Map showing location of California's game refuges. There are now 28 state 

 refuges, comprising an area of 1,792,000 acres. 



FUR RESOURCES. 



The fur trade played an important part in the early history of Cali- 

 fornia, but after the depletion of the two more valuable fur bearers, the 

 sea otter and the beaver, the fur-trading companies deserted the field and 

 the catch was left to mountaineers who wished to use spare time in the 

 winter to increase their income by trapping. Estimates of the value of 

 the pelts taken in the state have been made in the past but the first 

 dependable figures are now at hand as a result of the trapper's license 

 law passed in 1917, which requires each trapper to report his catch. A 

 compilation of the reports for the open season 1919-1920 made by Mr. 

 Joseph Dixon, economic mammalogist. Museum of Vertebrate Zoology, 

 University of California, who is at work on a book dealing with the fur 

 bearers of the state follows : 



